Best friend told me to say I love to cook and giving massages on my profile because, and I quote, "Girls love that shit."

So there ya go. Now you know.

I've been asked how I can be simultaneously "the dumbest and smartest person they know" by several friends. I'm a curious learner and a chronic overthinker, but I don't like to take myself too seriously. A good mix of intelligent conversations and stupid jokes is to be expect in my vicinity.

There's no point in tiptoeing around it or make subtle references to it: Once upon a time, I was too sick to work or study. For many years. It forced me to put my studies on halt and work in retail for a couple of years. I'm all better now, and I resumed my studies this fall. I couldn't be more thrilled about it, but this is why I don't yet have my degree.

So what am I studying? Economics.

It is, to me, the perfect mix of nerdy, science and political. I tried political science the last time I was in university but it felt too abstract and had far too few mathematics in it. Economics is a closer match to my analytical mind and the scientific mindset I developed when I studied chemistry.

Politics is a big part of my life. A while back, I decided that complaining at home wasn't going to make the world a better place. I got off my couch and I'm doing my part to nudge the country in a better direction. As a result, I end up spending a lot of time volunteering for political parties. You could call it a hobby, or a calling, depending on how grandiose you want to be about it.

If politics or economics are inhetently boring to you, have no worries. I've had relationships built on essentially never discussing it with my partners. I have other interests.

I’m really good at

Listening.

I have a deep passion for getting to know how people think, what makes people tick, what shapes them and how they've grown into who they are now. As odd as it sounds, talking to people can be accurately described as my favorite hobby - by far.

I like to connect with people with amazing potential, share our scars and compare our struggles. I like to help them become a better version of themselves.

I have a very analytical mind, some would even say an overly analytical mind. I've been told it can be too intense, where I get too deeply into a person's head and they feel naked, vulnerable or judged. I'm okay with that. I want to connect intensely with others. Otherwise, I do not see the point of socializing. I avoid small talk like pest. I want big talk. I want to learn about you, learn more about the world through you, come to understand life a little bit better through your eyes, and hopefully teach you more about yourself. It's why it enrages me to see so many empty profiles on dating apps. How can we meaningfully connect?

Usually, there's either this amazing chemistry and understanding, or it's incredibly hard for me to communicare and bond. I'm okay with not being everyone's cup of tea. Few are truly mine, so it's reciprocal.

Favorite books, movies, shows, music, and food

I've consumed far too much television over my lifespan for it to be healthy. In recent months, I've become more reasonable but good TV is in my opinion vastly superior to good films and I could talk TV shows with someone for hours.

I like shows that bring something unique to the table, that make you feel something or have something to say.

Person of Interest is a great example. For a show that started as another crime procedural with a side dish of sci-fi, it's grown into an eerily prescient manifesto of the effects of technology. After building a formula to its episodes, it the started to break the mold to make points. It's a near-perfect example of what good cable TV should look like.

Other favorites include Banshee, for its amazing directing and its capacity to make me feel emotions like no other has; Community, for ruining comedy for me by being simultaneously hilarious, smart and humane to a point where the series finale felt like saying goodbye to friends; Star Trek: The Next Generation, for showcasing what science fiction does best: putting interesting characters in foreign and fictive context to force to think about our own society; and The West Wing, for so romantically telling a story about people in politics.

I also enjoy the occasional anime. In particular, anything directed by Akiyuki Shinbo (ef, Madoka, Bakemonogatari, etc.) is sure to reach godhood. The man's gift for visual metaphors and camera angles is unparalleled.

He brings out the medium's true potential in ways other director can only dream of. Whereas other stop at the first level, he dares to tell the story on other levels, in ways only animation can: with visual metaphors, like a cogs grinding to a halt in the shadow of a man dying of hearth attack. It is, to me, astonishing no one has tried to emulate what he has done since.

My favorite classic book is probably L'Étranger by Albert Camus although Patrick Senécal's works are worth a mention.

A special mention goes to Eliezer Yudkowsky's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality. While, yes, it's a work of fanfiction, the level of craft put in the fiction goes beyond what is usually assumed of fanfiction. Beyond being hilarious and smart, I've rarely seen a work of fiction so closely portray my way of thinking about the world. The chapters on death, especially, are very powerful.

Food-wise, I love cooking. Cooking became a major of mine while I was recuperating from my illness. It's been part of my life ever since. I'm not a picky eater and I enjoy discovering new flavors, subtleties and textures. Most of my cooking are stir fry, so expect a lot of Asian food if I make you a meal.

I spend a lot of time thinking about

There are very few things I do not spend time thinking about. I'm a thinker. Ideally, I'm no longer an overthinker but that has proven a hard habit to break.

Quite honestly, there are few subjects I do not have an opinion on. The degree of confidence of the opinion will vary significantly based on how knowledgeable I am of that particular topic but I try to be moderately informed and more than moderately thoughtful over any subject of importance. I actively seek out new sources of knowledge and insightful persons.

If I had to name on topic, as of late, it would be feminism. It's clearly fought up its way to the topic du jour in Western society. Coincidentally, it's also is a subject on which it's very hard to form a thoughtful, coherent and exhaustive philosophy about. Gender politics has long been held by me as a topic no one can ever sound smart. There's too much asymmetry of experience, both within and between genders, too many different kinds of privilege to account for. My recent inner debates have further cemented that view. It's a subject too easy to be tribal about, and with too many nuances to consider. It's also growing increasingly more complex by the minute.

On a typical Friday night I am

Drinking a glass of wine or cider while playing board games with friends.

You should message me if

You'd like to go out for coffee or a drink and you think waiting for the guy to make the first move is so 20th century.